Toyota and one of California's largest car dealerships are locked in a legal battle concerning the effectiveness of a recall concerning the 2010 through 2014 Prius.

The Los Angeles Times reports Roger Hogan, owner of Claremont and Capistrano Toyota dealerships, has been warning customers about the issue and has refused to resell any of the recalled Priuses. The newspaper reports the man has $1 million worth of Priuses idly sitting on his lots.

According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration documents, Toyota recalled 698,457 2010 through 2014 Prius models due to a risk the hybrid system could overheat and increase the risk of the vehicle stalling. More than a year later, the Japanese automaker recalled 108,624 2012 through 2014 Prius V models for the same issue.

"A component within the hybrid inverter assembly may overheat, causing the hybrid system to reduce output power allowing the vehicle to only drive a short distance. In some circumstances, the hybrid system may shut down causing the vehicle to stop while being driven," Toyota said in NHTSA documents. "Toyota will notify owners, and dealers will update the software for the motor/generator control electronic control unit (ECU) and the hybrid control ECU, free of charge."

Hogan claims that after the updating of software to fix a "key electronic component," he continued to see cars coming in for the overheating and vehicle stalling issues. In a lawsuit filed with the Orange County Superior Court, the LA Times reports Hogan alleged the affected Priuses still have a safety defect that is putting "lives needlessly at risk."

A Toyota spokesperson declined the allegations from the dealership owner, in saying "We believe Mr. Hogan's complaint is entirely without merit, and we intend to defend vigorously against his inaccurate and misleading allegations." The automaker said in a statement that it believes the dealership's issues is motivated "by a separate dispute he was with Toyota over management and succession issues."

Orange County Supreme Court Judge Peter Wilson ruled against Toyota's motion to dismiss the lawsuit on legal grounds and set the trial for January 2019. In a separate report with Prius owners and auto industry experts from academia, the LA Times suggests that Toyota's recall solution increased reliance on its gas engine, which increased fuel consumption and hurt its fuel economy ratings.

One owner claimed that his fuel economy had fallen by about 5 miles per gallon on his 2010 Toyota Prius that had the software update installed. The automaker declined to comment on the report calling out its decreased fuel economy rating.